Journey of the Jay
by Silverridge1739
Summary: Jay is alone in the world, until she gets shot down in a suicide mission to Itex. As she lay, bleeding out onto the pavement of a high rise hotel, the flock rescues her, and when they realize who and what she is, they can't help but find out more.
1. Lost and Found

I was almost dead. I swear, the light was fading. I tried to scowl, but I ended up coughing up a ton of blood. My vision got all fuzzy, and I could barely feel the blood gushing out of the gaping wound in my side. You may ask, how did I get a gaping wound in my side? Well, it goes like this- first mistake, flying into a top of the line government facility unarmed and alone. Second mistake, have a mysterious blackout in the middle of it. There were a lot of other mistakes, but I'm pretty sure those were the important ones.

"Oh my god! Is she dead?" A voice squealed. Three thumps landed next to me, and I groaned. Cracking open my eyes, I saw three vague figures with _wings_ looking down at me. A girl with skin the color of a roasted hazelnut bent over me, and I moaned as her fingers probed my aching wound. Were these the angels of death, come to take me away?

"Oh. My. God." A low, smooth voice says in awe. "Are those really..." He gestures vaguely to my broken, ruffled black wings, feathers amok. A light, gentle hand strokes my feathers, and I flinch. No one touches my feathers. No one. Strong arms grip my legs and arms, and soon I am flying for what I believe to be my last time.

"Max." The low voice says insistently.

"I know, Fang. She- she's one of _us_. We can't just dump her!"

"Wanna bet?"

"Fang!" The girl's voice, Max's, is high and urgent. "I will NOT leave her!" The boy, Fang, snorts angrily.

"Whatever." Wind ruffles my long black hair, and sizzles as it touches my bleeding wound. That is too much for my system. The fuzzy blackness converges into me, until all I can see is a blank black nothing.

I wake to the excited murmurs of two kids standing over me. They both have blond hair and mischievous blue eyes, and when I strain my ears, I can just make out what they're saying.

"Gazzy! She's really one of us! She has wings!"

"Really? I wonder what her name is? I bet she likes to blow things up! Do you think she's another Dylan?" The girl shudders.

"I sure hope not. He was evil."

"Only at the end." A new voice, Max's, enters the conversation, and the girl and boy stiffen.

"Yeah. Only at the end." The girl echoed, but it's obvious she doesn't believe it. I hear the boy Fang's voice taught with anger and resentment, grabs Max's hand.

"No, Max. Rotten evil through and through." She opens her mouth for an angry retort, but I moan as hot fiery pain plunges into my side, causing the four to rush towards me. They all lean over me and I notice that Fang has long, dark black hair, similar to mine. Dark, concerned eyes bore into my very being. Despite myself, I feel a tremor of fear run through me. They are all too close, much too close.

"Fang." The little blonde girl warns, and he backs off, looking slightly confused. "You're scaring her." He rolls his eyes and stalks out of the room. Max studies me carefully, and I cringe. Just add a white labcoat and you had my nightmares. The way she looked at me, like I was an experiment, it was horrible. And she looked just like one of the scientists that had stared at me through plastic wiring. Same hair, same eyes, same expression. I shuddered, and the little girl's eyes got wide. She nudged Max and they both left. I heard rising voices crescendoing in the room next door, and I knew what they were talking about. Me.


	2. Flockified

"We've decided you can stay." Fang's voice echoes in my pounding head, and I squint up at him.

"Really?" He rolled his eyes resentfully and lights dance before my eyes. My head throbs, and I let out a small, involuntary gasp of pain. He bends down, dark eyes cool and calm.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah." I said sarcastically, breath catching in my throat. "Like _you _would know what nearly _dying_ felt like." He frowned at me, his eyes deep and soulful.

"I've died before. Been there, done that, all the likes." My eyes grow wide.

"You...have?" He nods, and turns to leave. I felt kind of bad. It would be really sucky, to know what it was like to die, and know you had to go through it twice. "Uh, sorry." I call out softly, and he pauses. Doesn't turn, just stops. He twists around and gives me a sad smile. I meet his eyes defiantly, and he stares into them. After a minute, he asks abruptly.

"What color are your eyes?" I was totally thrown, I'll admit it.

"Er, gray?" I tried, attempting to remember the last time I looked in a mirror. He raised his eyebrows.

"Gray? I was thinking more silver-blue. Gray is too...plain." He turned and strode out the door, and I smiled to myself. It made my face muscles explode in pain, and I stopped. I closed my eyes and resigned myself to sleep, just as the rest of the winged kids walked through the door. Another round of feisty fireworks exploded in my brain, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Opening them, I count 6 kids, a dog with..wings, and a regular dog. Another man walks through, in a-oh god no! They had a white lab coat bird kid cutting up torturer with them! I tried to push myself up, to get away, and my side sends a wave of pain through my system. Nevertheless, with only some difficulty, I stand. Rubbing my side, I am relieved to find it is scabbing over.

"Look." I said hoarsely, addressing the flock. "Thanks for taking care of me, but I prefer to distance myself from jerk faced scientists with scalpels." I spread out my glossy black wings and I heard a quick intake of breath from the evil wackjob in the coat. I must admit, my wings are stunning. Each of my primaries is streaked with silver, and my secondaries have traces of dark blue. Flexing my wings, I moved towards a nice, big me-sized window, and threw myself out of it. Glass cut into my face, arms, legs, and a whole lot of other places, but I ignored the stinging and flapped strongly, thanking god that I hadn't injured my wing. The wind was breezy and crisp, and the air was pure. It rushed past my face, twirling the stray strands of my hair into ferocious knots. It danced across my wings, ruffling the feathers. I went into hyperdrive, and raced away from the flock of bird kids who hung out with evil scientists. Weirdos. After about a minute of freedom, almost silent wings flap once behind me, and I twisted instinctively bringing up a fist. Wham. The girl bird kid, obviously the leader, crumpled under my surprise blow and hurtled down to earth. Sucker. The dark haired boy isn't far behind, and, seeing the girl fall, plummets down after her. I fly in small circles, higher and higher, watching. A lighter haired boy joins him, and together they haul the girl away from being a pancake. I see them release her, and then all three shoot up towards me. I bolt. My wings, long and wide, flap strongly and silently. Looking down, I see the girl and Fang under me, trying to catch up. I smile grimly. I was Gen 97. They wouldn't catch up. Taking them by surprise-again, I might add-I fold in my wings and plummet down, hurtling between them. I hear their gasps, and they both follow me down. I see them try and reach over to me, one on each side. I snap out my wings and knock them both down. The sudden updraft lifts me up, and I soar away, watching them regain their balance. It's pitiful really. It takes the girl at least 15 seconds. I see Fang staring balefully after me, and I grin impishly, giving a jolly little wave of my hand. He scowls, and pulls the girl-Max, after him. By now, the other six bird kids have caught up with them, and I slowly fly towards them, drifting on the breeze, giving them time to see me. As I move towards them, I assess the situation. There are six of them. Fang, Max, the little blond girl, a boy who must be her brother, the tall pale haired kid, and the girl with the afro. I could take them. I brought myself to a stop, slowly flapping, and they stare in wonder as I do not plummet to the ground, or move forwards or backwards. I am suspended.

"Hey." I say as nonchalantly as possible without cracking up. The looks on their faces...if only I had a mirror.

"How are you doing that?" Max asks definitely, looking back at her flock, who are still flying in tight circles to stay up. I shrug, and motion downwards.

"To save you the energy, lets just land." She frowns but nods, and I gracefully drop down, landing with barely a sound on the pavement of an abandoned parking lot. In seconds, the rest of the flock joined me. I nodded to Fang and smiled tightly at the little blondie, but planted my feet and stared Max down. She looked away first.

"Let me introduce you to my flock. Meet Fang, Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge." She says, nodding at each one in turn. I grin.

"Let me introduce you to _my_ flock." Her flock look around curiously and I chuckle. "Meet me, Jay." The blond- Angel- runs up to Max and whispers in her ear. She nods, and Angel stands next to her, sizing me up. I feel her probing my thoughts, and I send her an image of me beating her to pulp. She stops.

"It's just you?" The coffee colored girl, Nudge, asks curiously. I nod, and Fang whistles.

"How'd you manage to survive?"

"Beating the pulp out of anyone who comes within 5 feet of me." I answer, and he nods, stepping back a foot. I smirk, and he grins.

"You've got a nice little personal bubble of joy there." He jokes.

"Actually, it's more of a bubble of pain and misery." I note, and even the girl Max cracks a smile.

"So, Jay." I raise an eyebrow at her.

"So, Max." She rolls her eyes and continues.

"Do you want to join the flock?"


	3. Killer of Bots

At first, I was like, what? But they were all looking at me so seriously, and the girl Max was looking at me expectantly. Seeing I was confused, she elaborated.

"You're a pretty good fighter, from what I've seen-" I raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed slightly, but barreled on. "and you look sharp enough. Plus, you're obviously pretty-"

"Why thank you." I interrupt again, and the tall kid with sunglasses chokes back a laugh. Max scowls at him, then says,

"I'm scowling Ig." Why did she do that?

"Anyway, _as I was saying,_ you're obviously pretty intelligent if you've survived for so long on your own, and so you seem like pretty good flock material. We could use a fighter like you." I cross my arms.

"Hm." I pretend to think about it. "How much an hour?"

"What?"

"How much do I get paid per hour?"

"You don't- oh." She narrows her eyes and I grin.

"I'm in!" I chirp.

"She's like your twin." Iggy says dryly, and Fang winces.

"So, where do you live?" Nudge averts the conversation, and I am plunged into more confusion.

"Live?"

"You know, where you go to stay every once in a while, it usually gets blown up a few times..." Gazzy says slowly, and I shake my head.

"I've never really stayed in one place for more than a week." Angel's eyes widen.

"Do you have a pet?" I look down at my shoes.

"Well, no;" She frowns and says,

"Well, I have a dog."

"Does he have wings too?" I joke.

"Yes." She replies seriously, and I glance at Fang, who nods.

"He does." Freaky. A dog with wings. I'm just about to say something cocky, when all of a sudden a low buzz fills my ears.

"Whats-" I begin, but suddenly the flock leaps into the air. I follow suit, and we soon are streaking out over the city, followed by a dark mass. "that?" I finish, and Max shouts,

"Something new the wackjob scientists made to kill us!" I speed up noticeably Looking back, I twist and break into hyperdrive. Someone-Fang I think- shouts,

"Don't!" But I'm too far gone. I streak towards the dark mass and plunge into them, slashing and kicking. I tear them apart, and my light weight boots kick some butt. I'm overwhelmed by the ugly smell of machine oil and smoke, and all sorts of random robot parts fall from the sky. I break through the front line and hack through the second, third, fourth, fifth. I am a killing machine. Red eyes glare out at me from all around, and metal flies. Suddenly, Max is on my right, Fang is on my left, and the rest of the flock backs us. Strength surges through me, and I viciously hack another bot to pieces. It's a nice feeling, to fight with someone else. I lash out, and hit air, looking around me, I see blue sky. The robots are gone. And the flock is staring at me in wonder.

"You, my friend, are full of surprises." Fang says, and I bite lip hard to keep from smiling. Machine oil, streaks my clothes, and my face is sporting cuts and bruises. I tie my hair up messily and raise my eyebrows.

"What?"

"You just took out half of those robots." Nudge says imploringly.

"By _yourself_." Gazzy adds meaningfully, and I nod.

"How do you think I survived so long? Blinding them with my stunningly bright tan?" I spread out my arms, and they all laugh at the irony. Because I am as pale a vampire. Paler even. Fang shakes his head slowly.

"You do that every day?" I chuckle.

"More like every second. But yeah, they never really stopped coming." The flock is smiling around me, and I can't help a small, uncontrollable smile splitting across my face. I belong. My fun was ruined by Angel asking,

"What about your side?" Oh crap. I was spilling too many secrets.

"Oh, it's fine." I said, and Max moves closer.

"Iggy." She says, and before I can complain Max and Fang are tugging me down to earth and Iggy's long fingers are probing my side.

"Nothing." He says, confusion coloring his voice. "Not even a scratch." Fang frowns.

"But that was a bullet wound, and a bad one too. It couldn't of-"

"What generation are you?" Max interrupts, and I grimace.

"97." Max bites her lip.

"Advanced healing. Like Dylan."

"Okay- who is this Dylan?" I ask irritably, and they all look at me. "What? You all keep talking about him and I have no idea who you mean." Fang raises his eyebrows.

"You are amazingly good at changing the subject."

"It's one of my many talents." I snap back, and I shoot up into the air. They follow me, and for once, they can keep up as I fly off. Because I let them.


	4. Sneak

My heart is racing as I creep up the stairs, my feet treading up the worn stairs. Yesterday, the flock had convinced me to accompany them to their safe house in Montana, and I had slept in a normal bed, with sheets and a real pillow. For once, I didn't have to sleep with with one eye open, awaking with my heart thumping at the slightest sound. For once, I felt normal. And now, I was sneaking up the stairs, to eavesdrop on my new flock. I crept up to the door and prayed that Angel wasn't with them. I nearly jumped as I heard Iggy's voice echo through the wall.

"So, Max, why couldn't the other kids come?" Fang's terse reply came quickly.

"It would freak them out."

"More than usual?" Iggy snapped back, and Max's voice hissed,

"Shut it! Are we here to discuss the kids, or the new girl?"

"Jay." Fang corrected, and Iggy snickered.

"Sure, Fnick. Whatever you say." Fang grunted, and Max snapped,

"Sorry to interrupt your budding bromance, but we have a problem! Who is this Jay and why haven't we heard of her before? Why did we never see her at the school? Is she a spy?" Max rattled off questions, and I winced at the spy one. Seriously?

"Um, she's Gen 97 Max! She's newer than Dylan." Fang pointed out, and Max practically snarled,

"We do not talk about Dylan! And she doesn't seem new! She sounds like she's been around for a while, seen the sights.." Iggy muttered something unintelligible, and Fang snapped,

"Still, Ig, how does that work? Did they kidnap her?"

"Yeah, maybe!" Iggy said defensively, and thankfully Max said,

"So if she went in every ten generations or so, and she's Gen 97, and they started doing it around Gen 67, then she would have been going to them just about once a year."

"She might have gone unwillingly." Fang suggests, but Iggy interrupts,

"You saw what she can do, do you really think a couple of wackjob whitecoats could take her?"

"They could have developed something new. They did create her, so they might know her weakness..." Max trailed off, and my body stiffened. I held back a snarl and pressed my ear closer to the door.

"Max, do you think Jeb might know?" Fang asked quietly, and I heard Max's muffled hiss.

"We do not ask Jeb _anything_."

"Your mom trusts him." Iggy pointed out, and I felt a brief pang of envy. She had an

actual mom?

"Yeah, well maybe she actually likes lying, traitorous, two-faced weasels." Max snarled, and Fang said soothingly,

"Max, we have to figure this out. If we have to ask weasels, we ask weasels." Iggy chuckled, and Max sighed.

"Fine. We leave in an hour." Footsteps tromped towards the door, and I was saved only by my cat like reflexes, wired in from years of survival. Max, Fang, and Iggy stepped out, and Max called,

"Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, Total! Meeting in Fang's room!" Pounding footsteps echoed through the house, muffling Fang's objections. I shrank back into the shadows, pressing my wings into the wall, and literally melted in the wall, disappearing almost entirely. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge walked past me, and I was just about to go eavesdrop on them too, until a small black nose probed the wall right under my left arm. Twinkly little eyes stared back at me, and a small furry Scottie snuffled around the wall. I nearly fell over as it said,

"Angel, come over here!" I froze, shivers running through me, and I slowly furled my wings around me, praying the black would cover my pale face. Angel said,

"What is it Total?" So this was Total...

"I could've swore I saw something...never mind. Let's go." They ran off, and I slowly melted back out of the wall, looking around cautiously before stepping lightly away, following the sound of their voices. I felt like a sneak, but heck, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I found a plainly adorned door and pressed myself against it, listening intently.

"Max, why can't we come?" A girl's voice, Nudge's, complains loudly, and I hear Max's breath hiss out between her teeth.

"Because Nudge, we're going to the School. It's over 300 miles away, and we're not stopping." Max snapped, and the Gasman said,

"Max, what if someone attacks the house?" Max chuckled.

"You guys will kick their butts all the way to next Tuesday. Now, let's scram."


	5. Savior of All Mutants

I snuck down the stairs, following the chatter of excited voices. I heard Nudge say,

"Can I please come, Max? Fang and Iggy are going!"

"Fang and Iggy are older than you." Max said patiently, and Nudgelet out a huff of frustration. "Plus, we need someone to protect Gazzy and Angel." An irritated yip filtered up the stairs, and Max amended,

"Someone to help Total protect them."

"Fine." Nudge sounded irritated, and she stomped up the stairs, towards me. Then, a brilliant plan surfaced in my head, and I darted out and snatched her arm as she passed by.

"Agh-" I slapped a hand over her mouth and shushed her. She tried to karate chop my wrist, but I had an iron grip on her arms.

"Listen, Nudge." I whispered urgently, and took my hand away from her mouth. "Don't scream, or yell, or anything, okay?" She nodded, opened her mouth, and shut it again. I smiled at her. "I heard you wanted to go visit the School."

Minutes later, Nudge had quickly explained the plan to Angel and Gazzy, who of course immediately begged to come with.

"I'm sorry guys, but we're going to be flying a long way, and-"

"We'll follow you then." Gazzy declared, and after a few more minutes of arguing I gave in. Because it made sense.

"Fine!" I hissed. "You can come. We need Total to guard the house though. Can you do that?" I turned to Total, and he puffed out his chest importantly.

"Does a sausage taste like heaven?" I took that as a yes.

"Let's move!" My three merry mutants and I stepped outside, spread our wings, and flew.

"Angel." She looked over to me,

_Yeah?_ I shuddered. That was creepy. She smiled, and I thought, hard.

_Don't alert Max. If you do, she won't let you come. If any of them know, we will never make it to the School. _She nodded, and I relaxed, letting the wind rush over me, and my wings flap strongly.

"Alright." I said aloud. Three inquisitive pairs of eyes turned to me. "Every hour or so, I'll fly up and make sure we're still following them. When I do, I need you all to keep flying slowly, in the same direction. I need to be able to find you again." Three solemn heads nodded back at me.

Twenty minutes later, I heard a quiet buzzing. A low, almost silent sound. No one else noticed it.

"One sec." I said, and swerved upwards, tilting my wings until I flew almost upside down. Flipping again, I scanned the ground, the trees, and finally, the sky. What I saw will be in my nightmares. A garish, grotesque, leering _thing_ was staring back at me. Once again, my survival instincts saved me. I folded my wings and rocketed downwards. Adrenaline filled me, and I switched to hyperspeed, flinging my wings out. I was halfway to Washington when I remember the flock. I nearly abandoned them, but I remembered Angel's sweet face, Gazzy's innocent smile, and Nudge's hyper enthusiasm. And once it finished off them, it would go to Max, Fang and Iggy. And on no uncertain terms would I abandon them. Whether I liked it or not, I was part of their family now. So, I reversed in midair and later, I would swear I could feel my wings ripping a gash in the air.

I arrived to see Nudge and Gazzy bravely kicking and slashing against the monster. Angel flapped nearby, concentrating hard. The beast had long shaggy black hair, large glowing red eyes, long pointed ears, and a whip like scaly tail. But the most prominent feature was it's large glistening dragonfly wings, attached seamlessly to it's back. Nudge's foot collided with it's talons and bounced off with a sharp crack. She let out a howl of pain, and Gazzy hurled a small black thing at the creature. It exploded in it's face, and they both streaked down to earth. The thing snarled venomously, emerged out of the mist, and I made my move. Darting out of the cloud cover, I threw myself in front of it just as it reached for Angel, and hissed. Spit flew out of my mouth, and I let out a guttural howl. It flinched back as if struck by an invisible hand. I growled, and snarled, advancing on it, and it cowered before me. I hissed again, then threw myself at it. I kicked it's stomach, pulled it's fur, punched it's face, all the while hissing and spitting and howling. I could feel the kids behind me, but my only thought was to destroy this beast. I looked up into it's eyes, meaning to punch my fists into it's nose, and froze. Hidden in the fiery red depths, a lense blinked out at me. I brought both fists up, stiff and straight, and slammed them into it's eyes. The eyes shattered, and the beast wailed in agony. I snarled again, and this time it turned and zipped away, wings humming. I howled once more, then drifted back down to the ground, so tired I could barely move my wings. The moment my feet touched solid ground, they swarmed me.

"Oh my god Jay!" Nudge squealed. "That was so amazing!"

"How did you do that?" Gazzy asked in awe, as Angel hugged me. I smiled and patted her hair. Looking up, I saw the darkening sky.

"Let's crash guys." I said tiredly, and, walking over to a large sycamore, I leapt up, checked to see that all the kids were there, and slumped against the rough bark. Being in a flock was tough.


	6. Finding the Flock

"Jay!" A high, chatty voice hissed in my ear.

"Wha?" I gasped, instantly awake. I leapt up to my feet, and looked around, making sure all three kids were there. There was Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge was sitting right next to me.

"Shouldn't we get going?" Her eyes were big and dark and brown, and she looked so sad,

"Fine. Sorry, I've never really had to wake up so-" I yawned, "early." I jumped down from the tree and with a vigorous shake, unraveled my wings. Rolling my shoulders, I leapt into the air, knowing that the three kids would be behind me. Once we were in the air, I said,

"Okay, I'm going to go check where they are. Remember, slow and steady, and if you get into trouble, hide! I promise I'll find you." They all nodded, and I darted up, soon covered by clouds. Also, I would not recommend flying through a cloud. I know everyone thinks it's light and fluffy, but in actuality it's very wet and moist and cold. The tips of my wings skimmed the clouds as I scanned the air below, searching for Max, Fang and Iggy. About 15 minutes later, I spotted them, in a canyon with a deep blue lake at it's base. They were wheeling around with several hawks, practicing- flying? I swooped down and flashed ahead, seeing the ground whip away before me. Before long, a low, ugly building nestled in the mountains came into view, and I veered around, going off to find Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. Before they ran into the rest of the flock and gave us away.

I coasted through the calm, cool night air, twisting and looping, enjoying the night. Most kids play video games- I fly. Before long, three pinpricks of darkness appeared in the distance, and I sped up. I had been flying high above the clouds until then, but now I glided down, rapidly closing the gap between us. They all smiled at me when I told them.

"They're less than a day away from here. The School is closer. When saw them, they were flying with hawks or something." Nudge let out an excited squeal.

"Oh! They're at Lake Mead! Remember!" Gazzy and Angel nodded, and I grinned at them.

"Hopefully, we can catch up to them by tomorrow, when they can't make us turn back." We kept flying, even though it was pitch dark, the moonlight glinting off our sleek feathers. Just as the kids looked like they were about to drop, and the sky was tinged with pink, I spotted Lake Mead in the distance.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do." I whispered, and they all moved closer. "We'll find a cave to hide out, so we can figure out when they leave. Then, you guys are going to fly over and meet up with them, and I'll fly above. I don't want them to know I'm here." They nod, but Angel frowns a bit, and I try to think of anything other than what I'm actually thinking. Sadly, I've become very good at that.


End file.
